


the book of love

by Masterofkarate



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: (it's inhalants & that's why it's labeled Teen+), Developing Relationship, Engagement, Established Relationship, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Recreational Drug Use, Songfic, They just love each other a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:42:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22398004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masterofkarate/pseuds/Masterofkarate
Summary: Charlie & Mac's romantic relationship developing from a few month into dating up til their two year anniversary through the lens of the song The Book of Love.anyway this is probs the softest thing i've ever written in my whole life. and that's saying a lot.
Relationships: Charlie Kelly/Mac McDonald
Comments: 2
Kudos: 38





	1. you could read me anything

Charlie hadn’t quite  _ officially  _ moved into Mac’s apartment. Partly because they both knew it was weird to finally start using the ‘boyfriend’ label after months of hesitation and then move in together within two weeks, and partly because Charlie knew he’d miss having the option of squalor and being able to hang out alone with Frank whenever he wanted. 

But it was an undeniable fact that Charlie had  _ unofficially  _ moved into Mac’s room. Charlie stayed over Mac’s more nights of the week than he stayed at his own apartment, and his very limited wardrobe was almost exclusively piled up in Mac’s room. That’s exactly why the two of them had trekked to Ikea for a second dresser for Mac’s room. They picked out something small, since Charlie didn’t need too much space, but it still felt like a big step. 

“God damn it! This is  _ impossible _ ,” Charlie huffed, there were screws and pieces of unmarked wood and washers strewn about the bedroom floor. Charlie ran his hand through his hair, crumbling up the directions and tossing the as far away as he could with the other hand. 

“Dude, calm down,” Mac said, not bothering to hold back his smile, even for the sake of Charlie’s frustration. “We haven’t even  _ started _ .” 

“Well why’d we go to the stupid Swedish store? All the directions are in Swedish,” Charlie said, looking over his shoulder to glare at Mac.

Mac rolled his eyes and stretched out to grab the directions. He unfolded them and said, “No, only like half the directions are in Swedish. And it looks like most of the actual directions are just pictures.”

“Well they’re stupid pictures,” Charlie grumbled.

“Whatever, man. I can read you the directions,” Mac said, “I’ll read, you do the work.”

“Ah yeah, always leave me to do the Charlie work,” he answered, though Mac could hear the smile in his voice.

“Yeah, babe, that’s exactly what I’m doing,” Mac huffed. He got off of the floor and sat on the edge of the bed, giving Charlie more room to work. 

“You just like to see how tough and manly I am,” Charlie teased. 

“Ah yes, seeing you put together furniture is a real turn-on for me.” 

They both laughed and teased back and forth before finally settling down to start. Mac read the directions, he was careful not to micromanage, knowing that if Charlie felt he was being bossed around, the whole endeavor would be cut short for the evening. Charlie listened intently and followed Mac’s directions precisely, refusing to let his attention drift. 

The job was done quicker than either of them expected with less bickering than anybody else would believe. Charlie stood up and dusted his hands off, he took a step back to admire his work. When Mac had the instructions folded and let the paper fall to the floor, he reached out and tugged Charlie by the hand. Charlie stumbled backwards and let himself fall onto Mac's lap.

"You're so hot when you build things," Mac murmured against the back of Charlie's neck, half teasing.

Charlie laughed and shifted to sit sideways on Mac's lap. He kissed him and then said, "For real though, you have a good reading voice."

"Oh yeah?" Mac scoffed, assuming sarcasm. "Ikea instructions must be so relaxing, huh?"

Charlie nodded and kissed Mac's jaw. He mumbled, "Anything you read is good. You could read me anything and I'd like it."

Mac felt a lump in his throat. Because how the fuck do you react when your absolutely perfect boyfriend/best friend that you love more than you ever felt possible says something so sweet without sounding like a pussy? There was nothing for Mac to say. He let Charlie kiss up and down his jaw as he evened out his breath, trying to keep himself from being overwhelmed with love.


	2. you can sing me anything

The heat poured in through the open doors, fans were blowing all throughout the bar, Frank was too cheap to get the air fixed. He said in May, they could sweat it out. Too bad after a brutal winter, Spring started with a vengeance, giving nobody time to adjust.

On top of the heat, Dee had them spring cleaning. Charlie had figured out it was because she lost something (money she had sewn into a pillow) and needed help finding it, but Charlie would rather help clean than deal with her wrath by admitting that he found it (when rats chewed a hole in the pillow) and took it for himself. So, spring cleaning it was.

Charlie was sweating through his t-shirt, sporting the worst pit stains of his life. Dennis and Mac had both taken off their shirts (Charlie wasn't complaining much about that part), and Dee had tied her shirt up with a ponytail. Frank took off for the day to use the air conditioning in Artemis's house.

They had all taken to the basement, which was a little bit cooler but the bulk of the cleaning. Charlie had been going to town on a gas can between bouts of productivity. About twenty minutes in, Mac showed off something cool he found, which turned into a friendly competition between him and Charlie. At some point, Dennis stormed upstairs, Dee shouting at him from the bottom of the steps. 

“Mac, goddamn it! Talk some sense into him!” Dee shouted, distracting Mac from the crate he was raiding.

“Why is it my job? I don’t want to do this stupid cleaning anyway!” Mac shouted, though he stood up and walked towards the stairs, more to be involved than out of any actual interest for the fight. 

While the three of them shouted at each other, Charlie realized he had  _ definitely  _ won the competition between him and Mac. Behind shelving, he pulled his find out. He unfolded the legs and stood it up, he dusted the top off, wondering the last time he saw it. Without really thinking about it, he plugged it in.

While Mac and Dennis and Dee were shouting over each other, Charlie closed his eyes and put his fingers on the keys. His muscles knew exactly what to do and his fingers were moving. He started playing The Electric Dream Machine version of Dayman, the first version he ever finished. He didn’t really mean to start singing along, but it just sort of came out.

Opening his eyes felt like entering another world. He hadn’t realized he escaped so far into his own quiet world. Dennis and Dee were still fighting and shouting, but Mac had drifted back towards him. Standing a few feet away from Charlie, Mac was giving Charlie a really funny look.

“Uh- I- are you-” Charlie stumbled over his words, less because he was high but more because he was afraid Mac was mad at him or maybe didn’t like his singing.

“Sorry dude,” Mac said softly, he seemed like he was slowly entering his own world. “Shit, you’re just, how come I never noticed how good you are at singing?”

“Me? What?” Charlie laughed, wrinkling his nose.

“Yeah, you. Your voice is just like… woah. You know?”

“Shut up!” Charlie shook his head, laughing. 

Mac made his way behind the keyboard and pulled Charlie into a hug. He mumbled, “You’ve got to sing for me more.”

“Babe,” Charlie half-whined, half-laughed as he hugged Mac back. “Stop.”

“Really,” Mac said. 

“You hate Dayman,” Charlie protested.

Mac kissed Charlie and said, “I don’t care, you can sing me anything.”

“Jesus Christ! Get a room!” Dee snapped, Dennis was behind her. They both seemed angry but had apparently reached enough of a resolution to continue with spring cleaning.

“What are we supposed to do?” Charlie screeched, he had his arms around Mac’s neck still, though. “You’ve got us all cooped up in this shitty, sweaty basement, we have to do  _ something  _ to entertain ourselves!” 

“You can get to goddamn work to entertain yourselves!” Dee snapped. 

And Mac pulled away from Charlie to gesture at Dee and shout back. Charlie let Mac and Dee get the arguing out of their system. While they did that, he wrapped up the chords to the keyboard and thought about songs he could write for Mac. If Mac really did like to hear him sing, he'd want to make songs that Mac would like. 


	3. you ought to buy me wedding rings

“What time is it?” Mac grumbled into the pillow, refusing to turn onto his back. Yes, he loved Charlie’s hum reverberating in the room, but he fucking hated the morning. Especially after staying up as late as they did the night before, getting as drunk as they did. 

“It’s time to get up!” Charlie chirped. He placed a two plates on the bedside table and sat beside Mac, rubbing his shoulder. “C’mon, babe,  _ please _ .”

Mac groaned and slowly turned onto his side. His scowl melted as soon as he made eye contact with Charlie, who was grinning down at him.

Mac yawned and pressed his palm against Charlie’s, intertwining their fingers. He mumbled, “Happy anniversary, handsome.”

“Happy anniversary,” Charlie said. “Sit up, c’mon. I made breakfast. I made you a Grilled Mac and me a Grilled Charlie. I’ll go get the coffee.”

Mac smiled and shook his head fondly, “C’mon, I thought we said anniversaries were stupid.” 

“They are, but c’mon, let’s go,” Charlie laughed. 

Charlie bounced up and got two cups of coffee. When he came back, Mac was sitting up, his plate in his lap, Charlie’s now sitting on his bedside table. Mac was glad that on their two year anniversary, Charlie finally folded to serving Mac his (more traditional) take on a Grilled Charlie without Mac’s insistence. Mac couldn’t help but still feel touched by the gentle ways Charlie showed him love. He felt so lucky.

“So I know anniversaries are lame or whatever, but I-” Charlie started once he was settled in, enjoying his sandwich. 

“C’mon, you didn’t get anything, did you?” Mac grumbled.

“Well,” Charlie felt himself blushing. He laughed and shook his head, “Naw man, no I was kidding.”

“Okay,” Mac laughed. 

When they were both finished eating, Mac wiped his hands off with a t-shirt from the floor. He leaned over the side of the bed and opened up a drawer in the nightstand, shuffling through it. He dropped a mess of crumpled up wrapping paper, barely held together by tape. 

“What’s this?” Charlie asked, smiling as he looked down at the gift in his lap and then over at Mac. “I thought-”

“They are, but I love you,” Mac said, pecking Charlie’s cheek.

“Asshole.” Charlie elbowed Mac’s side and said, “Now I look like I don’t love you.”

“Oh shut up and open it.” 

Charlie rolled his eyes and opened the present to reveal a two-fold picture frame. He opened it to see a picture of him and Mac from elementary school on the left side. He didn’t even remember the picture, he had no clue where Mac got it, maybe their moms’ house. They were outside of Charlie’s house on their bikes, Charlie was showing off a missing tooth with his grin and Mac was mid-laugh as he looked in Charlie’s direction. The other side was a pretty recent picture, Dee took it on her phone when she was going through a photography phase (she was trying to pick up an artsy lesbian for a scheme, though everybody was pretty sure it was for more than just the scheme). It was a candid, they were looking down at something spread out on the bar, Charlie was pointing emphatically, but Mac was again smiling and looking right at Charlie. 

Charlie’s heart started to beat a little faster as he looked down at the photographs. He was pretty sure you’re supposed to stop feeling butterflies after a year or two, but he still hasn’t with Mac and doesn’t think he ever will. How had he never noticed the way Mac was looking at him in the picture Dee took? There was more love in that picture than he had noticed before. And the picture from their childhood- Charlie always thought he was the one looking at Mac with longing, but Mac had always been looking at him like that too.

“Do you like it?” Mac asked, breaking a silence that Charlie didn’t notice.

Charlie jumped in surprise, pulled from his own thoughts. He whipped his head up to look at Mac and nodded quickly. 

“Yeah- yeah, I-” there was a lump in Charlie’s throat. He laughed to force it out and continued, “Sorry, yeah, it’s, it’s really nice, babe. Thank you. This is like, this is so sappy.”

“Whatever, that’s why anniversaries are stupid, they’re all sappy and shit, I just thought-”

“No, dude, no stop, I  _ love  _ it,” Charlie said to ease Mac’s nerves. He leaned over in bed and pecked Mac’s lips. He added, “I love  _ you. _ ”

“I love you too. I know we said no gifts, but you always get me awesome presents for everything and I wanted to get you something nice, but not like a present like a  _ thing  _ because your presents are always so thoughtful, so I was like, damn I know how to beat him, I’m going to get him something super fucking sappy.” 

Charlie laughed and looked down at the picture frame again, pressing his thumb against the glass, rubbing the smooth surface. Charlie let out a hum before asking, “Okay, but what if I got you something too?”

“Shit, come on, tell me it’s not sappy at least.”

“Well-” Charlie leaned over to his nightstand and shuffled a few things around. Before pulling his hand out, he instructed Mac, “Close your eyes.”

“Dude, come on-”

“Close your eyes.” 

“Fine,” Mac huffed, but he was smiling.

Charlie closed his bedside table and sat up straight again. He took in a deep inhale before placing his small gift on Mac’s lap. After another moment of pause, Charlie said, “Okay, open them.”

Mac looked down at the small box, Mac knew immediately it was a jewelry box. He convinced himself that maybe it was a cool cross on a chain or something, but when he opened it, he took in a sharp inhale.

“Do you like it?” Charlie asked, letting much less time pass than Mac did.

“I- I do, I like it a lot,” Mac said quietly. He pulled the ring out, letting his thumb press against the textured of the embossed Caladdagh symbol on the gold band. He tore his eyes away from the ring and looked over at Charlie, he couldn’t help the tears in his eyes. “Charlie, is this…? This isn’t-”

“I mean, yeah, it’s supposed to be, Frank said this is a marriage ring. I mean, if you don’t want to, it’s cool, I was just thinking, if you wanted to get married, I want to too. But like, if you don’t, I don’t blame you, I know I’m sort of like-”

“Shut the fuck up,” Mac cut him off with a laugh. He leaned over and kissed Charlie. It was hard and quick and their noses bumped. Mac pulled away with a laugh and said, “Of course I want to marry you.”

“Really?” Charlie asked, rubbing the back of his neck as they pulled away.

“Yeah,” Mac laughed. He put the ring on his finger and laughed. “Yeah, Charlie, c’mon, of course I want to marry you. I love you so fucking much.”

“I love you too,” Charlie said, smiling wider than he ever did in his whole life. “Okay, cool, so like we can get married.”

“Yeah we can,” Mac agreed.

“Sorry, I mean, I know I didn’t write you a musical or hide the ring in your dessert or like even get down on my knees, but I just, I was gonna I don’t know, do something big, but I just didn’t want to wait.”

“This was perfect,” Mac promised. 

Charlie placed the new picture frame on his nightstand and scooted closer to Mac, putting his arm over Mac’s shoulders and pulling him close to kiss him. They spent most of the day in bed, kissing and laughing between dreaming about their wedding. 

**Author's Note:**

> i'm @ chacmar.tumblr.com if u wanna see me get emotional abt charmac constantly :)


End file.
